Infectious Diseases In Child Care Facilities
Incidence
- 4-7,000,000 child care-related infections/year among 7,000,000 children under age 5 in out-of-home child care.
- 2-3 times the risk of infectious diseases (diarrhea, respiratory disease, otitis media) compared with children not in out-of-home care.
Sequelae
- 400,000 medical consultations and/or hospitalizations/year.
- 25% of household contacts may be secondarily infected.
- Increased use of antimicrobial drugs.
Costs
- 60% of employee absenteeism attributable to unmet child care needs.
- Parents miss 1-4 weeks work per year to care for sick or injured children.
Transmission
Primarily person-to-person by fecal-oral and respiratory routes.
Risk Groups
Children in out-of-home child care, child care workers, and their household contacts.
Surveillance
- Reports of only specific diseases to state and local health departments.
- No formal surveillance system.
Trends
- By the Year 2000, 75% of mothers with children under 6 will work outside the home.
- Number of children in alternative care settings likely to increase.
- Incidence of some child-care associated infections (e.g., giardiasis, otitis media) is increasing.
- Increased risk of antimicrobial-resistant bacterial infection.
Challenges
- Identify cost-effective control measures.
- Evaluate efficacy of current prevention recommendations.
- Train employees in infection control techniques.
Opportunities
- Reduction in infectious disease transmission will benefit families' quality of life.
- Savings in health care and productivity costs.
Research Priorities
- Evaluation of prevention and control strategies.
- Identifying behavioral & educational interventions to facilitate adherence to good infection control practice.
Intervention Priorities
- Enhance capacity of public health information systems for communicating with child care providers.
- Assess models for enhancing delivery of public health services through the child care setting.
April 1996
Courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
